If you’ve experienced days where life looks fine on paper, but feels strangely muted, it’s worth paying attention to. Women tend to file our low days under “just stress”, but Dr. Judith Joseph, MD, board-certified psychiatrist, researcher, and bestselling author of High Functioning, advises us to notice the signs between a “blah” day and a numbness that might mean something more.
A “blah” day and clinical anhedonia (the inability to feel pleasure or joy from things you once loved) aren't the same thing, but they live on the same spectrum, says Joseph. The good news is there are science-backed ways to shift your mood when you are experiencing a low day.
🧠 The takeaway
A “blah,” joyless-but-functioning stretch may be low-grade anhedonia (a dip in your brain’s reward response) and not just a series of bad days.
The fastest resets for mood are small and physical. Tend to your body’s basics, then give your brain one thing to look forward to.
Movement (especially outdoors) has research to back up its ability to improve mood, but if flat days outnumber good ones, that’s a signal to reach out for support.
🤔 Curious about how to keep your mind strong for life? Try the SHIELD method.
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Why midlife can make the “blah” days louder
“Midlife is often when the caregiving math stops adding up — you're managing aging parents, kids, careers, a household, sometimes hormonal shifts on top of all of it, and there's rarely space carved out to ask 'how am I actually doing?'” Joseph says.
Women in particular are socialized to keep functioning no matter what, so the exhaustion doesn't look like collapse; it looks like doing everything, just without any joy attached, she adds.
There’s biology underneath this experience, too. Estrogen and progesterone influence the brain and mood, and their fluctuations through perimenopause and menopause may feed anxiety, low motivation, and anhedonia. For some women, addressing those hormonal shifts can help reduce symptoms. If you fall in this camp, it’s worth talking to your clinician about your experiences.
What can help you when you are feeling low
Joseph recommends that you start with something she calls “venting.” “It's the fastest release valve.” And it doesn’t have to be a big emotional thing. Joseph says it can be journaling, singing in the car, even crying. “It's just about letting the bottled-up energy move through you instead of staying stuck.”
Right behind venting is “vitals,” or checking in on the basics your brain and body run on. Take two minutes to actually notice how your body feels: are you thirsty, tense, running on no sleep?
“Sometimes a 'blah' moment is really your body telling you it's dehydrated, under-slept, or hasn't eaten.”
Movement matters, too. A 2026 scoping review in Mental Health Science found that nature-based physical activity consistently improved mood and quality of life. The catch is that you have to move first and let the motivation catch up, something called behavioral activation. “You don't wait to feel motivated before doing something enjoyable; you do the small thing first, on purpose, even if you don't feel like it,” says Joseph.
The microhabit that reliably restores a sense of joy or motivation on a low day
A “vitals” check paired with one small “vision” moment is the microhabit Joseph recommends most. Here is the process: “Take two minutes to actually notice how your body feels… Fix the one thing you can fix right now. Then spend the remaining minutes on a “vision” experience.” Joseph says you aren’t creating a five-year plan, just naming one small thing you're looking forward to, even something tiny like a coffee order or a song you like. That combination, tending to the body, then giving the brain a reward to anticipate, is a fast way to interrupt a flat mood.
When was the last time something delighted you?
When it’s time to reach out for support
High-functioning depression can hide behind a full, "fine-looking" life, says Joseph, and adds that the biggest subtle sign is restlessness when you're not busy. If a bad day makes you want to rest, that's normal. If stillness itself feels unbearable, and you notice you're using productivity or distraction to outrun a feeling rather than actually feeling it, that's the pattern Joseph would want someone to notice.
“People with High-Functioning Depression often feel empty when they sit still, so they keep moving — overworking, overcommitting, scrolling, shopping — anything to avoid that stillness.”
Beyond that, if the flat days start to outnumber the good ones, Joseph recommends that you reach out for support. “Self-help tools like the Five V's are meant to be a daily practice, not a substitute for care when things have moved past what you can manage alone. If someone reads this and recognizes themselves in it, my hope is they'll take it as encouragement to talk to a professional, not as a replacement for one.”
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👀 In case you missed it:
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The information provided about wellness and health is for general informational and educational purposes only. We are not licensed medical professionals, and the content here should not be considered medical advice. Talk to a doctor before trying any of these suggestions.
